New candy fights cavities

Dec 6, 2013

A new sugar-free candy developed by researchers in Germany may reduce cavities by binding to the bad bacteria in our mouth and preventing it from reattaching to to our teeth.

In previous studies in rats, researchers found that the bacteria Mutans streptococci could be reduced with another bacteria called Lactobacillus paracasei. It has been shown to decrease the number of cavities in rodents. Researchers used L. paracasei as the good bacteria in the candy.

For this study, researchers tested the candy on 60 subjects. One-third of them ate candies with 1 mg of L. paracasei and another third ate candies with 2 mg. The last group served as a control and ate candies without any bacteria. The participants ate five candies during the study and were not allowed to perform any oral hygiene activities or drink coffee, tea, wine or probiotic foods.

Researchers found that nearly 75 percent of the participants who ate candies with the good bacteria had significantly lower levels of the bad bacteria in their saliva compared to the control group. They also found that those people who ate the 2 mg candy had a reduction in bad bacteria after only one piece of candy.